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It's funny you should say that about that about Eureka moments Malone.

Just early this morning I was watching the Why Files on YouTube about Cicada 3301 - it's and old story and I'm sure most of you will have heard of it but it was good to hear about again and this is a condensed and entertaining version (I'll provide a link at the end).

In short, a set of puzzles began appearing on the internet that required vast knowledge of codes and programming and ... well, you'll see. No-one knew who was behind it and theories were rife - was it the CIA, NSA etc using it as recruiting tool?

Eventually one or two of the very few that got to the end revealed that it was an organisation trying to recruit the most brilliant minds to help in their fight against censorship and tyranny and so on.

The problem was though that, yes, these were the best code, programming and cypher experts out there but, at the end of the day, they went through all this because they loved solving puzzles, the "Eureka moments" as Malone says - not because they wanted to spend all day writing computer code - regardless of how 'worthy' the cause ...

... and yes, British Intelligence's hiring of cryptic crossword solvers for Bletchley Park also gets a mention:-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZfKfkuYwyM&t=2105s

Thanks, Brendan, very interesting stuff.

Thank you all so much for your input. I always need to know why I have got the correct answer. My Chambers (1973) doesn't have RI but I forget
It has Latin phrases but find lots of words which are no longer common. RI is now to be added to my Bradford's . And of course I missed the 'for' altogether! Thanks.

Thanks Malone, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'd be interested to hear what cryptographers on this Forum, of whom I'm sure there must be many, thought about the whole thing - did any of you try to crack it and, if so, how did you get?

Sorry for the typo - how 'far' did you get? is what I meant.

KItkat, thanks - I'm just glad I was able to help (and I gained a new piece of knowledge too, so it was all good!).

Thanks Brendan, very interesting!

I’ve never heard of OutGuess, Onion or Tor Browser, so I doubt I’d have got very far.

My favourite line was at the end … “Puzzles make us happy… when was the last time politics made you happy?” 🤔🤣

The reference @32:10 to Daily Telegraph crossword puzzles and Bletchley Park is interesting though… I might look into that

Thanks Jono,

I'm glad you enjoyed it - it does seem like the sort of thing that is tailor made for many of the people who contribute to this Forum:-)

I found this, you have 12 minutes!

http://www.alaricstephen.com/main-featured/2016/9/18/the-cryptic-crossword-that-recruited-for-bletchley-park

Thanks Jono, that was fun but I did terribly 😕